In yet another close game, Patriots come up short

FOXBORO -- At some point, it was going to catch up to them.

Entering their game at Miami on Sunday, 10 of the Patriots' first 13 games had been decided by a touchdown or less. Of those 10 close games, seven had been decided by a field goal or less -- including a pair of games decided in overtime. Of those seven nail-biters, New England had won six.

In a league as competitive as the NFL, even the best teams can't win every week with such a razor-thin margin. It doesn't take much for a two-point win to turn into a one-point loss. Perhaps it was just a matter of time before the Patriots came up one play short and wound up on the wrong end of a coin-flip game.

That such a loss might have been inevitable wasn't going to be much solace to the Patriots on Sunday, not when it meant they missed out on a chance to clinch the AFC East title. But it might have made it a bit easier to turn the page on Monday.

"Every NFL football game comes down to a few plays," linebacker Rob Ninkovich said. "There's a handful of plays that are either going to go for you or against you, and if you don't make those plays, you lose the football game. In every game, even a game where it's kind of a blowout, there's a few plays there that it could go the other way if they're not made. For us, really, it comes down to making the key plays at the end there."

A franchise that saw a team that won blowout after blowout in 2007 come up short in the Super Bowl certainly can take positives even from a loss in a close game.

"That builds mental toughness and character," Ninkovich said. "There's definitely no quit in us. We're going to play as hard as we possibly can until the end."

And any lamenting of the Patriots' loss has to come with a tip of the cap to Miami, a team that now has won four of its last five games, including games at Pittsburgh and at home against New England in back-to-back weeks.

"Let's give some credit to Miami," special-teams captain Matt Slater said. "They're a good football team. They're well-coached. They've been playing well here down the stretch. Let's give them some credit as well. It's not easy to win in this league."

But as the weeks go by and the injuries pile up -- left tackle Nate Solder was the latest addition to the list of walking wounded -- the Patriots' margin for error gets thinner.

"There's always something that's going to happen in a game that, if you make the play, you win the game, and if you don't make it, you lose," Ninkovich said. "It comes down to making those plays. You can't make excuses for who's here and who's not and guys that got hurt. You've got to play with who's on the field and who's playing at that time."